Straw-cutter



E. TAYLOR.

Straw Cutter.

Patented Oct. 12. 1844.

7 ing, which forms a UNITE STATES PATENT OFFICE.

TAYLOR, OF RooHEsTEE, NEW YORK.

STRAW-CUTTER.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 3,791, dated October 12, 1844.

To all whom it may concern 7 Be it known that I, E. TAYLOR, ofRochester, in the county of Monroe and State of New York, have inventeda new and useful Improvement. in. Straw-Cutting Machines; and I dohereby declare that the following .is a full and exact descriptionthereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawpart of thisspecification, in which 1 Figure 1 represents a general view as shown inperspective and Fig. 2, a front view of the machine.

The nature of my improvement consists in constructing a straw cutterwith a straight knife so as to produce a drawing stroke down across themouth of the machine the straw being fed in by the action of the machineat proper intervals.

The construction is as follows: On a suitable frame (a) is attached ahorizontal trough box (A) in front of which thereis a cast iron piecewhichmay be plain or ornamented having an oblong aperture thereinextending across the front end of the trough and surrounded by a fla-nch(B) that projects outward and through which the straw is brought to becut, the outer edge of the flanch above named is madetrue and even andagainst it the knife (O) plays up and down in front of the mouth oraperture above named with a drawing stroke by means of a lever (D) whichhas two arms branching from it one of which is attached to the frame andthe other to the knife near the middle, the handle of this leverprojects out horizontally at (E). On the same side as the handle andopposite to the end where the lever (D) is attached to the frame, thereis another lever or arm (F) to which the end of the knife is jointedthat by being thus suspended moves up and down obliquely or in thesegment of a circle a braceor guard (G) is put over the end of the lever(D) where it joins the knife and is fixed with set screws (6) firmly tothe frame or plate (B) these serve to press the knife firmly up againstthe casting and make it cut smooth.

On the upper arm of the lever (D) there is a small segment rack ofbeveled teeth (Z) this works into a similar one at right angles to itmarked (1 that has two arms (H H) attached to it each of which bears anadjustable pawl (71, h) at its end that work into two ratchet wheels (I)upon the axle of two feed rollers of usual construction inside the boX.The upper roller is held down by being connected with a springunderneath; when the machine is put in motion the straw is fed in atintervals after each cut of the knife which gives a drawing out acrossthe straw after which the feeding rollers act and force forward thestraw for another out which is repeated.

From the above description it will be obvious that as the handle of thelever (D) is worked up and down the straw will be fed into the machineand cut to any suitable length.

I am aware thata shaving or sliding out has been given to the knife byattaching each end-to a connecting pendulous arm, in the manner of aparallel ruler, and therefore I wish it to beunderstood that I do notclaim this as my invention; but- E. TAYLOR.

Witnesses:

RIoHD K. WATTS, LAFAYETTE CALDWELL.

